Different Korean Dialects found in Korea

Within any language or language group there may be significant changes in speech, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The term used to describe these changes is called a dialect. Some words or phrases that exist in one dialect may exist or be absent from different Korean dialects.

Korea is split into North and South Korea. North and South both have multiple regional dialects. The most common Korean Dialects in South Korea is the Gyeonggi or Seoul Dialect.

North Korean Dialects

Pyongyang – Spoken in the P’yongyang, P’yong’an, and Chagang regions. Considered to be the primary Korean Dialects of North Korea.Hamgyong – Spoken in the Hamgyongm, P’yong’an, and Ryanggang Provinces of North Korea.Hwanghae – Spoken in the Hwanghae region of North Korea.Gangwon/Kangwon – Spoken in the Yeongseo region of Gangwon and Kangwon Provinces.

South Korean Dialects

Seoul | Gyeonggi -Spoken in Gyeonggi, Incheon, Seoul, and Kaesong. Considered to be the primary Korean Dialects of South Korea.Chungcheong – Spoken in the Chungcheong(Hoseo) region of South Korea.Jeju – Spoken on Jeju Island, off the southwest coast of South Korea.Jeolla – Spoken in the Jeolla province of South Korea. (Honam)Gangwon-do – Spoken in the Yeongdong region of Gangwon and Kangwon Provinces.Gyeongsang – Spoken in Gyeongsang includes the cities of Busan, Daegu, and Ulsan.

Different Korean Dialects of the Korean language are spoken in many different nations and regions around the world, most commonly throughout northern Asia. However, the differences in regional dialects may not make one Korean speaker nearly incomprehensible to another. In most cases, the different Korean dialects don’t have a specific written form of the language, but there’s usually a certain amount of literature that accompanies each Korean dialects.